Bristol/Japan 3rd December 2018

XMOS, a leading supplier of voice and audio solution is proud to be involved in this new voice interface development kit, “codama”, jointly developed by Yukai Engineering and NTT DOCOMO.

“codama” base board and ‘codama’ microphone array board

The “codama” voice interface development kit includes the XMOS VocalFusion XVF3100 voice processor; it enables AI engineers and developers to build a voice interface with NTT DOCOMO “AI Agent API” into their products. This technology brings people the freedom to control their electronic devices and access a wide range of IoT services by simply using their voice – wherever they are in the room and whatever is happening around them.

The XVF3100 delivers outstanding voice capture accuracy over long distances; its barge-in capability means the user can interrupt any music playing on the consumer device, even when it’s playing loudly, and the wake-word is spoken softly. Additionally, the XVF3100 uses beamforming to capture the direction of arrival of the voice command and track the person speaking as they move around the room. Sophisticated algorithms deliver acoustic echo cancellation, dereverberation and noise suppression, to capture the voice of interest and clean up the signal for onward send to the NTT DOCOMO “AI Agent API”.

Finally, Yukai have added an excellent personalisation feature that lets people create their own wake-word on Yukai Engineering’s website and download it to their device.

Mark Lippett, CEO of XMOS said today,“We’re very proud of this collaboration with the talented team at Yukai Engineering and NTT DOCOMO. NTT DOCOMO “AI Agent API” opens up a world of AI possibilities across electronics and robotics, giving people an altogether richer, more exciting experience – and now people will be able to access that through voice control, from anywhere in the room.”

Mr. Yoshikazu Akinaga, Manager of Innovation Management Department at NTT DOCOMO said, “NTT DOCOMO developed AI Agent API to ultimately provide end users with all-new speech AI experiences based on highly natural AI-supported communication. Today, we are very excited to introduce new speech development kit integrated with XMOS’s class-leading far-field voice interface technology working with Raspberry Pi and NTT DOCOMO AI Agent API seamlessly. This kit enables everybody to develop speech and dialog service “device” easily. We are very grateful to Yukai engineering and XMOS team collaboration to takes this major step forward for achieving our goal. We are expecting all users to enjoy new speech AI experiences.”.

The “codama” voice interface development kit will be sold from 21st December 2018 via Yukai Engineering, MACNICA and Amazon. You can pre-order via Amazon.co.jp from 3rd December 2018 (the pre-order link can be found on Yukai Engineering’s web-site).

About XMOS:

XMOS is a leading supplier of voice and audio solutions to the consumer electronics market. Unique silicon architecture and highly differentiated software positions XMOS at the interface between voice processing, biometrics and artificial intelligence. For more information, please visit www.xmos.com.

About NTT DOCOMO:

NTT DOCOMO, Japan’s leading mobile operator with over 74 million subscriptions, is one of the world’s foremost contributors to 3G, 4G and 5G mobile network technologies. Beyond core communications services, DOCOMO is challenging new frontiers in collaboration with a growing number of entities (“+d” partners), creating exciting and convenient value-added services that change the way people live and work. Under a medium-term plan toward 2020 and beyond, DOCOMO is pioneering a leading-edge 5G network to facilitate innovative services that will amaze and inspire customers beyond their expectations. DOCOMO is listed on the Tokyo stock exchange (9437). www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/.

About Yukai Engineering

Yukai Engineering is a start-up comprised of designers and engineers who are passionate about making our daily lives more fun and fulfilling with robotics technology”. Their award-winning products include Necomimi (selected for the Time magazine’s “The World’s 50 Best Innovations 2011” list), and BOCCO, a communication robot that keeps family members in touch with each other. For more information, please visit www.ux-xu.com.

Japanese language press release available on request from press@xmos.com

Mark leads XMOS. His main focus is to encourage innovation, enable profitable growth and look to the future.

Mark joined XMOS in 2008 and held the roles of COO and VP Engineering before taking the helm as CEO. Mark has extensive experience across the electronics industry, with involvement in both blue-chip and start-up companies.

Prior to joining XMOS, Henk was a Reader at the University of Bristol, where he was involved in the research and teaching of Computer Architecture, Compilers, Ubiquitous Computing, and Wearable computing. He’s also held positions at the University of Amsterdam and Philips Research Labs.

Robin’s an experienced finance professional and qualified Chartered Accountant. He’s held senior roles across public and private companies, led two IPOs and been involved with numerous, successful Venture Capital & Private Equity transactions.

Aneet Chopra

Aneet leads strategy and development, his main focus is to set and execute company strategy and build key relationships.

Aneet joined in 2018 and prior to that was Business Head AR / VR at Intel Corporation. Aneet has extensive, international experience in building ecosystems around and shaping the future of Speech and compute vision technologies.

Joe Connelly

Joe steers the global sales team.

His main focus is to build new relationships, nurture existing clients and drive top-line growth. Joe has extensive experience across sales and marketing.

Sunny Suen

Sunny leads the factory, his main focus is to run supply chain, look after our vendor partnerships and manage production quality.

Sunny joined in 2009 and prior to that held senior engineering, test management and field application positions across the industry.